Clarktor Aircraft Tugs in Britain and Australia

[Jared Archibald]

G'day everyone,
there is a bit of a story to this query so please bear with me as I explain......

Two years ago I purchased a well-worn but running and quite modified Clarktor tug from a surplus auction here in Darwin. It runs a side-valve 6 cylinder Chrysler engine, a 3 speed crash box, and weighs in at about 2.5 ton (the rear guards are over 2 inches thick and weigh half a ton each). I have been using it on the block to give the kids rides and to drag carrier hulls and other things around the place. Its build plates are long gone and I could never find a stamped number - I assumed it dated from the 1950s or 60s. All I knew of its history was that its last user was the Northern Territory Police Air Wing in Alice Springs.

Some time ago I found a Clark Equipment Yahoo Forum which I lurked on and found out quite a bit of information - most importantly that the tug seemed to date from the late 1940s due to its running gear layout.

A few nights ago I revisited the site and found a reference to all Clarktor tugs having their serial number stamped into the right side of the rear bumper. AH HA! I went out with the torch and couldn't see anything - too many layers of paint. Some judicious use of a scraper though revealed a number: BH-184. This didn't fit any of the usual serials on the charts so I sent it off to the moderator of the forum.
I received a reply in less than a day. The Clarktor I have was built in 1941 and is a British Heavy model (hence BH). It is the 184th one built of a contract of 1512 that were manufactured for the "British Ministry of War Transport". It was shipped out of New York on the 18 November 1941. The moderator also found the actual build sheet for the tug, scanned it, and put it on the forum - amazing!

This is all fantastic information but it raises more and more questions. This is where I am hoping that the members on this forum may be able to help.

First of all, how did this machine get to Australia? Did the "British Ministry of War Transport" buy enough in their contract to ship numbers of them to all Commonwealth countries (or maybe just Australia...)? Or did it come after the war? (I think this is somewhat unlikely).

Mr. Hayward, would you have any information (or access to it) on contracts that the British let for Clark tugs in 1940-41? With your comprehensive work on so many other wartime contracts you may have come across something.

Would there be records in the AWM that with a lot of work one could discover the ARN? I think I have read though that the RAAF records are lost/don't exist.

Are there any other owners of these beaut machines out there in MLU? If so I would love to hear from you.

Any information on this tug, or any Clark tugs, or parts etc. etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Jared